Trending
LAKE LINDEN - After 82 years, Lake Linden native, U.S. Army Sgt. Robert James Goldsworthy, missing in action since since Dec. 17, 1944, is coming home for burial. The service at the Maple Hill Cemetery is scheduled for 11 a.m. today, according to Dale Mukavetz, Goldsworthy's nephew.
On March 27, the Daily Mining Gazette published an article titled: “Finally at rest.” The article reported that the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced it had identified Goldsworthy's remains in 2025. In January 1949, Graves Registration Service teams returned to the area and interviewed local residents, including the Burgomaster of Reinheim and a local priest, the DPAA reported. They learned that several American soldiers killed in the battle had been buried in the Gersheim Cemetery, about a mile and a half northeast of Reinheim.
The DPAA reported that because DNA technology was not available at the time, identification was impossible. Following advances in forensic science, his remains were exhumed for renewed testing. On September 18, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that Unknown Soldier X-849 had been positively identified as SGT Robert J. Goldsworthy. After the identification was made, Goldsworthy, recipient of a Bronze Star, and Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, was moved and laid to rest at the Lorraine American Cemetery in Saint-Avold, France.
What the DPAA did not disclose was that Goldsworthy was identified by a DNA sample provided by Mukavetz. Mukavetz never knew his uncle. He was born two years after Goldsworthy was killed. Mukavetz said his entry into his uncle's story began in 2023, he said, when the DPAA contacted him.
"They initially narrowed the identity of the remains down to two people, one of them being Robert," he said. "They contacted me and asked me for a DNA sample. Of course, I gave the sample."
Mukavetz said that while the process requires extended time, he did not hear from the DPAA for two years.
"I got a phone call from the DPAA, a year ago saying they have your uncle Robert's remains," he said. "That was almost exactly a year ago. They told me at that time they would be releasing the remains in January of February of 2026. That didn't happen. They said they were busy."
Mukavetz said he contacted the DPAA around the 4th of July of this year for an update on the status. "They said, 'yeah, we can release Robert to you,'" he said. "I said, 'Well, great. Let's do it.'" Goldsworthy's odyssey was not over yet, though. Before his remains could be returned, they needed to be cremated.
Mukavetz said the normal process with repatriation is to send the casket containing the remains. However, there is no nearby airport that can accommodate that. The nearest one is in Minneapolis. "As far as we were concerned," Mukavetz said Tuesday, "the best solution was to cremate his remains where he is now, and that's going to happen shortly."
The military is certain the will have Goldsworthy's remains returned to Lake Linden by August 14, said Mukavetz, and Andy Rowe, with the American Legion Williams-Giroux Post 90, of Lake Linden, will organize the honor guard for the escort.